Leaderboard

Welp I gave in and got the Z6, have a bunch of upcoming projects where AF would help immensely and I took the plunge. We'll see how it goes when it arrives tomorrow!

Small Bluetooth remote Record/Stop button controller with screen to provide real time status from camera of : Aperture Shutter Angle ISO Temperature Tint Integral bright LED illuminates to show record status. Kickstarter in August. Price will be €60 Production version will not be orange.

Yes it will be on Kickstarter. I understand the apprehension about Kickstarter to be honest but rest assured nothing of mine will ever be going on there until it is ready to go from a functionality point of view, which both this and the small one already more or less are. The problems with Kickstarter invariably happen when it is being used to fund development rather than just funding production. I'll put up a small video when time allows next week to show both of them in operation. The small one has another trick (or two) up its sleeve that I'll also show in the video.

Its for focus control. Unlike the small Record Start/Stop one, this one can control all the parameters as well as monitor them. It also has the multiple recallable Aperture/ISO/Shutter/Temp/Tint memory slots functionality from my app. The focus controller works with native MFT lenses and EF lenses on Metabones smart adapters and has adjustable rotation range (i.e. how many complete turns it takes to go from minimum focus to infinity) and one shot AF by pressing the wheel in. As per my app it has storable focus points with the option to instantly switch or with a selectable transition rate. The big difference with this though is that there is also a manual option where you control the transition with the wheel. Internal battery recharged by USB and can also be used while being charged that way too. Time from switch on to connected and controlling the camera is around 3 seconds so a lot quicker than an app. Haha....it was just a quick picture to show @Andrew Reid that it is daylight viewable. It is actually a terrible marketing picture for my balcony wall cleaning skills though !

Internal battery that is rechargeable by USB. Can also be powered by USB whilst charging. Don't be ridiculous..... Of course it can Screen is bright daylight viewable as well. Unlike the camera itself Yeah but their Orange is subtle. This one is more Emergency Oh My God Press That To Set The Alarm Off type of an Orange. I have a version that runs Leica cameras so that one will be in aluminium. And snakeskin. There's seldom any similarity to anything remotely related to quality with anything I make so we are safe there ! NB For our American readers, Quality Street is the UK equivalent of your Sesame Street and features characters such as The Green Triangle and The Purple One.

Depends what for. If these photos from my iPhone XS Max are the definition of sucks ass, then I don't think I can agree! Of course the optics on a 10 year old DSLR is a defining difference. Now they are being simulated in software. It genuinely works. Additionally the iPhone XS Max has incredible dynamic range, better than most DSLR single shot JPEGs.... Not of 10 years ago but of now. Resolution and low light performance are "enough" for my snapshot needs and phone screens. Of course, a full frame DSLR from 10 years ago like the Sony A900 will beat it for that hands down... but who is pixel peeping snapshots on Facebook? The software side is just not something you have with any DSLR. I am as equally into grading RAW on an Android flagship as I am grading the superb HEIFs from my iPhone, which start off a bit like LOG frames. Not many DSLRs from 10 years ago have a 46 megapixel sensor (Xiaomi Mi 9) with 14bit RAW grading built in and a massive OELD do they?? The ability to shape the bokeh and change the focus point in post is very useful. Again all thanks to the computational advancements. I had the CM1, but sold it. It was capable of some fantastic images but the lack of IS hurt it in low light vs the iPhone at the time, I remember it being rather noisy. Bit of a flat looking lens as well with not much 3D pop. Very basic software killed the rest of the experience, and old Android release. Credit to Panasonic to trying though.

The small color tweaks they gave the GH5S allows great colors SOOC. I usually shoot HLG but if you nail white balance and exposure the 10Bit Cine-D looks really good with some small profile adjustments.

You're wrong Tupp. John's wrong. Everyone's wrong Tupp.

I'm still trying to find a supplier for the e-ND that can make a larger piece so slightly back burnered at the moment while I concentrate on other things. The electronic part does work in concert with my other controllers such as this one (and the app as well actually) so when it happens it will be integrated. Currently, the size of the glass that I have is only really suitable for in mount versions, which is a bit of an issue with cameras such as the P4K which relies on speed boosters. Anyway, I've just done a quick and dirty pic (literally when you see the finger prints all over the glass) to illustrate what the build along would have been with the smaller piece. I used the MicroBit as the controller (in an electric blue DIY case obviously) as its cheap and easy to program for everyone (although I would obviously provide the source code) so at its very, very basic component level this is how it works and you could finesse it from there in terms of housing etc. and not using croc cables to connect it! In this version you just use the two buttons to increment and decrement the ND level as seen here at 0%, 50% and 90% reduction although you can scale it anyway you want. Another advantage of the MicroBit is that it has a very simple Bluetooth link function so you can use a second one to remote control it. When I source the bigger piece, I'll put it up properly but thought it might be interesting to you in terms of how it works as it will be exactly the same simple principle but bigger! I'm actually pondering a mechanical version of it at this point though.... As a man who's latest phone purchase was a Blackberry I'm not sure ahead of my time is that accurate Wait till you see what this one does.....

I have two EOS M's and have had two 5D2's, the 5D is cleaner than the EOS M without the speedbooster at high ISOs. Pop a speedbooster on the EOS M and then they're pretty close with the 5D slightly at the upper hand. Honestly, I don't get the point of shooting at high ISO's (unless it's your base ISO e.g. 800). If you must shoot in the dark, just use some cheap lights, an iphone screen or something and then add de-noising and it's fine.

The Blackmagic logo includes orange so it would look particularly relevant. Especially in aluminium rather than plastic. Too much similarity to a Quality Street will however end in disaster.

There's probably never been a better time to do it, because now you can get almost every piece of equipment to run on batteries. @tupp was right about gases and stuff, which is a really huge deal if you're trying to run a generator down there, but hello 2019 and its cheap LED lights and affordable high-ISO see-in-the-dark cameras! That leaves dealing with the authorities and working out what they will or won't do. It might be a good idea to ask around who has done such things before, as it's possible that they really don't like people making scary cave movies because they think it will scare tourists away, or maybe they like scary cave movies because scary movies are popular and people will come to the caves for excitement or whatever, you never know. I saw a great film once about homeless people living in a subway station and they got permission from (IIRC) the polish rail department to film there with the criteria that the final film must begin with a statement from the rail people, so it did. The first 3 minutes of the film was a portly gentleman from the rail department reading a statement about how the rail department wants to reassure the public that homeless people don't live in the subway and that it's clean and everyone should use it and that they are proud to support the arts, all while looking like he's completely terrified to be on camera. It was great! Can't remember the name of the film, but it was a first feature and it was really good, so if someone can remember then please let us know

Considering how small it is and how many matt-black technical things are in a camera bag, maybe it should be orange Great stuff!

If he made an L mount version of the original AF adapter I think he could probably name his price with SL/CL/TL owners to get AF capability with their M lenses. Conspiracy theorist in me suspects thats why Leica shit on the MC21 compatibility as an adapter like that exposes a bit too much that would enable reverse engineering. I need to resume my pin blanking experiments with the MC21 and the SL but from the ones I did its pretty clear its just a simple lockout based on the ID returned by the lens not being in the camera's list, hence why they had to do a firmware update after Panasonic released their lenses and presumably will have to for every new lens as well. So if we could find a way to inject the ID of a lens that it DOES have in its list via the MC21's return line then we could spoof it into working

Looks like its real and will be shipping at the end of June and at $249 its cheaper than I expected it to be. I'm disappointed they haven't actually shown it working stacked with their E to Leica M AF adapter but they do say in the comments of the video that it does work, albeit a bit slower obviously. They haven't answered the question someone has posed about it working stacked with the Sigma MC11 which would give EF compatibility as well so thats one to keep an eye on. As I've no real interest in buying new Z lenses, I've been waiting on this as it makes the Z6 a whole lot more interesting to me as its now adaptable to have full F, EF, E compatibility as well as AF for manual focus lenses. As does the tumbling price of the camera itself ! http://techartpro.com/product/techart-sony-e-nikon-z-autofocus-adapter-tze-01/

While a lot of very capable camera companies apart from the Major Players are now entering the affordable cinema camera market, it's always nice to have more players, more choice of cameras and more options for sensors, codecs etc. This one seems interesting, but right now the codecs are very heavy for a budget cinema camera with no compressed RAW option. Also, these will release some time next year, so the wait could be long (new entrants have delays, more often I guess). Hopefully they will have some great sensor options (in addition to the ones they already have) and superb codecs, by the time these hit the market. Ah yes, and great prices. https://www.newsshooter.com/2019/06/19/octopus-camera-open-platform-with-swappable-sensors/

So the nikon z6 is now around 12 stops. but with the raw update beeing raw and all, and photo's are 14 stops of DR. We will get 14 stops of DR out of the nikon Z6 right? Which would make this a 2,5K $ FF raw camera(with the atamos recorder included). Which is even only half the price of the zcam F6. This could be the next best thing and blows everything in the near range out of the water, or am I missing something here. What are the downsides of the Z6, as I never used it or saw it really? (I have a shitton EF glass, are there decent adapters out there?) I went on to check some quick footage online. If its looks this good crippled, I can only imagine how good the RAW will look like.

Here are some more test shots from the Zeiss 25mm 2.8 ZF “Classic” lens... I’m in the process of picking out a new monitor, can anyone suggest the best/easiest/quickest color calibration tool... Spyder?

Thanks, and yeah it is a great camera in most ways. I guess I just started putting Alexa and EVA1 footage from jobs I was on into the same Resolve timeline and throwing on way too many LUTs and noticing the C200 footage fell apart sooner, despite being raw and being flatter. It looks amazing if you don't mess with it too much, but if you do it gets chunky. I totally agree with keeping it simple, though, that might be the best solution. The C200 definitely has more highlight detail than the EVA1, even if only by less than half a stop. It's noticeable. Never tried the SDI out. I don't like external recorders. But that would solve the problem I'm having with raw being too slow to edit. That's really the biggest problem. A big part of this was just the price tag. If I could get an EVA1 for $3000 I could sell the C200 and still come out ahead. But now I'm less sure. Overall I totally agree with keeping it simple.

@BTM_Pix thought so, but its even better ofcourse! Is this going to be kickstarted also? After the Lukilink fiasco I "promised" myself I would never kickstart again, but I can easily change my mind anyway! Congrats, you are on a roll as of late! All those increase the usability of the P4K significantly. I am not lying when I say that I will get the camera because of you. Thank you.

Idk, I love the stuff you shared from your C200. Whatever you were doing in the beginning seemed to be working... has your workflow changed? I used to color in FCPX, but then I started messing around with Resolve and because I could, I’d complicate my color workflow to its detriment. Now I’m back to using Resolve as a transcoder and basic Raw corrector... WB and exposure... and I’m using the color board in FCPX and I’m happy again. So maybe try a simpler workflow? Btw, I forget... did you ever test the Raw signal to 1080p ProRes via the SDI out? I’m still really intrigued by that. With all that being said, I really like what I’ve seen from the EVA1. @Zak Forsman makes his sing. Also, if you’re thinking about a change, I know some EVA1 users have a GH5s as a B-Cam and I know you were thinking about going back to a DSLR/DSLM form factor, so that could be an option as well... Or maybe even a 1DC?

Hmm, interesting. I was getting bummed all the new Voightlander lens only for E mount releases, as I don't have an E mount body. Perhaps the new D5 class Nikon Z will sway me? Too many choices...

I slightly disagree. They designed the EM1X with the fastest 120 FPS EVF. And until about 3mth there was no alternative. So Olympus got caught on the wrong foot here. Image Quality, I think is very good. Maybe they could have gone with 24MP... but the key is not the sensor but processing power. AF is also very and there are now really really good BIF examples available that where not possible beforehand. Yes, it could always be better. But I would be satisfied now My personal guess in about October we will get the 2.0 Firmware with the release date for 150-400 F4.5..... B

Nice pics @Andrew Reid and @webrunner5 These new Quadbayer/ Tetracell sensors not only have good HDR, but they also are much sharper than other 12MP smartphone sensor cameras. I guess by the time the 64MP (/16MP) and 100MP (25MP) smartphone sensors make it to smartphones, the amount of detail and the improvement in HDR dynamic range will truly be impressive (especially if its anywhere close to the promised 100dB or 16.5 stops).

Judging from this comment on a DPR thread about them, things may have changed in that regard .... Which would explain the reviews on here https://www.consumeraffairs.com/home_electronics/6th_avenue_electronics.html

Well, the thing everyone needs to consider now is what is actually possible. The Firmware 3.0 is working flawlessly on basically three year old E1MKII. Now the E1Mx has twice the power, better cooling. Just imagine what a 2.0 firmware could do! For me the EM1x only has two real downsides: no top status display which is a requirement for such a body and the 120 FPS EVF is now already superseded. And it’s priced in with an 500,- Euro discount ( 300,- cash back now). I’ll bet in 3-4 month you can get one for 2400,-. Anyway, I will exchange my GH5 for one by the end of this year. B

One of the guys I do a film festival with used to be a park ranger here in town. He still assists film crews on local shoots like this: He assures me that working with the state parks is pretty straightforward. They'll indulge just about any request, even the Indie ones. Cheers

It depends on the cave wouldn't it? If it was a tourist cave then that stuff would already be managed, etc, and you'd be renting it out essentially, or using it on a day that it wasn't in use.

Lens adapters to Sony e-mount already exist. A Kinefinity mount can just be an adapter. Reverse engineering is entirely legal too. The Holy Material EXISTS!! Good luck with the project mate!

perhaps try maybe old railway tunnels except no real character to speak off. sometimes 4 wheel drive enthusiasts know of caves that aren't known to members outside of the club .the few caves i know about are quite shallow and have glow worms. think tourists by the bus load ? In a similar vein i bought 100 tea candles all i need now is a very still night and i'll find out how many candles to illuminate the bmp4k or i'll be building my own man cave ?

so the Bermuda triangle is the one that got away ?

You are ahead of your time, my friend! I need this in my life.

Some great stuff here, the EOS-m looks like a true little bargain thanks to Magic Lantern, shame they haven't got it working on the M50 before I sold it, may have kept me in the Canon family

I actually wasn't referring to running a genny inside a cave (which would be an obvious hazard). Natural noxious gases can collect in caves and mine shafts, hence, the use of canaries in underground mines. Also, having a decent sized crew and cast in a small closed space can deplete the oxygen. If you are in a cave with a cast and crew and if you are not close enough to the entrance to feel a breeze from the outside, then you probably need to run an active ventilation hose/duct from the outside to the set (in other words, you need to pump fresh air into the shooting area of the cave).

I will link up some soccer footage from my game the other day. Not really feeling the FS5 though, considering the Panasonic AG CX-350 atm. Funny how quickly I started missing having that built in lens. 1 inch sensor with a 24mm - 490mm lens sounds perfect not to mention 10 bit 4K 60 etc

Seems like it. I'll watch this with interest, more as a concept than something I would buy since it may be rather expensive. We've seen a couple attempts like this in recent years. The Axiom project is the prominent one, featuring a modular concept and a global shutter. The Craft camera (which was never more than a couple 3D renders for marketing), also championing modular design and a global shutter. The Fran, which was a Windows computer with a global shutter sensor. The nice thing about a camera like this is that, with a powerful enough computer, there are really no limits to what can be done. I've mentioned it before, but with a setup like this you could for example use a Zoom F4 as a USB audio interface and record synced, multitrack audio directly in the video files. With a sufficiently open API you would have a lot of control over how files are recorded. They seem to be using ffmpeg, and basically said that only the hardware speed limits the codecs and formats that you use. Depending on how open their software is, you could potentially do a lot of file management assistant editor'-type jobs on set as you shoot as well. I really hope they expose the software as a proper OS that you can use as a normal desktop computer if you wanted to. My pipe dream here is for an all-in-one pre-to-post computer. Write a script, storyboard, shoot, and edit all on the same device, with software that keeps it organized from start to finish. How awesome would it be to be able to have a PIP or overlay between the live view from the camera, and the storyboards? Hit record, and the camera knows which shots you're doing based on the storyboard, records video and "external" audio directly into the same file. At the end of the day you plug it into an eGPU and you can edit with almost the full power of a decent consumer PC. I can think of so many ways to streamline my productions if there were an ergonomic way to attach a WIndows or Linux PC on my camera on set.

Rich dentists and lawyer might favor Leica, but that doesn't make them toys. Their film cameras are pretty dam cool. That said, I don't feel Fuji cameras are toys either. They offer good value and a better mix of features for most shooter. I might have to check out the Hasselblads just out of curiosity. I don't think the Fuji is a buy for me with the terrible rolling shutter. So the initial unveiling was pretty uninspiring. The verdict is in and most are disappointed in the X1D 2... But the secondary offering (CFV II 50C & 907x), imo actually stole the show, and there is hardly anyone talking about this sexy beast. I'm really digging the all new camera. Retro to the max... an instant timeless classic?

Already ordered an EM1 Mkii from B&H....gonna do a vid about it! I think this is now going to be a way better option for people than the EM1X...WAY cheaper. Paid $1,100 for it used. If the AF is as good as the EM1X there is no reason to get the EM1X for video...other than the limited 120fps mode. EM1 Mkii may be the best option for solo content creators who want best bang for buck in both price and size.

Have you seen Herzog's film on caves... really great. They also build an exact replica of that cave which is super interesting and thought about filming there myself: http://archeologie.culture.fr/chauvet/en Not sure about shooting a proper film in such sensitive locations... usually need permits and relivant insurance.... but I was shooting in a cave in Ireland last night... no crew, no permit. P

Don't know much about permits (and I haven't looked at your links), except that if the location/cave is in a park, you will probably need a permit from the parks department that has jurisdiction (municipal, county, state or federal). Also, there are significant safety concerns with caves (and mine shafts). Here are some safety guidelines. A lack of oxygen or noxious gases can kill you -- that is a hazard that you cannot see. If you will be crawling through tight passages, you will be glad if you are wearing a hard-hat, knee pads and elbow pads. Be careful!

"Video: To be enabled at a later date." ?

Just wait for a Chinese replica of BM keyboard for $50

Resolve is radically under-priced is the better way to look at it. Here's a history of Resolve I prepared earlier..... Having said all of that though, I still think you'd have to be doing hours of editing / grading per day to justify a control interface, or one that costs more than $50 anyway

Can't wait for this. Let's hope they make one for L-mount as well ? I see they are already on eBay are various HK and Chinese shops. Shipping now perhaps?

How we feel about Canon sometimes:

The last year Ive seen roughly 50/50 FS7 and Canon Cx00 amongst the pros shooting for the big names and networks in the arenas I've worked. But on the lower end and straight for Webb it's been 50/50 Smartphones/Osmo and A7x. And interestingly. A couple of XC10/15. First I've seen in the wild. I'm of course talking video only. For stills it's been 90% Canon, 9.99% Nikon and one single Olympus

Another Crapon apologist. Oh dear. EOS R is not "low end of the market" The manufacturing cost issue and tech capabilities excuse has been disproven many times. Magic Lantern shows what even the very old and cheap bodies are capable of... see EOS M (first model) and even the 50D from 2008 which had no video mode. Tech has always been there for much better features implementation. Fuji X-T3 packs in plenty of nice tech for half the price of an EOS R... please do compare the video performance between those two. The manufacturing cost of an X-T3 seems to work for Fuji's bottom line. Canon manufacturing costs I have no idea and couldn't care less about. Maybe their factories have fallen behind and need upgrading and they cannot buy the latest processors from big rival Sony? Who knows. But if Fuji can make a profit on the X-T3, so can Canon on a similar spec body, I would have thought. Yes, when you have very old management, what worked in the 1980's may no longer be relevant today. That's Canon. In many ways they are the essence of what made Japan successful in past times, in other ways they are what happens when marketing people get too powerful, then get too old, and yet still end up running the company. All I can say is the engineers must be very bored and thinking of leaving. Nice, hope you enjoyed the race. However, not too hard to figure out that Canon have biggest established presence in the pro sports market for stills. Nothing changed there. Not sure what that has to do with the consumer or video market though. I do recognise the appeal for a classic style DSLR with very good live-view, good AF for stills, an easy to use video mode, nice feel, etc. Measure it on a technical level against competition though and the video mode doesn't hold a candle.

One of five films created for Morrison’s in the UK (supermarket chain). Filmed on two GX80’s. Discreet, stabilised and good enough for this job.